June 22, 1999

Special Truth in Media Reports on NATO's Kosovo War and "Peace" S99-113, "Peacefarce" 7

HEADLINES

Devic                      1. Serb Nun Raped, Not Only Tortured (New York Post)

Prizren                   2. KLA Shows Its Real Face - Killers, Looters, Arsonists...

                                  And Torturers

Pristina                  3. NATO Breaches the Kosovo "Peace" Agreement: KLA to

                                  Evolve into "Kosovo Defense Army" with Albright's, Senate's Blessings

Cologne                 4. Yeltsin Completes Serb Betrayal; Clinton Glows

Ljubljana              5. Hosting the World's Biggest Murderer

Pristina                 6. NATO Continues to Kill - Its Own, This Time: Four

                                 Dead in Delayed Cluster Bomb Explosion

----------------

1. Serb Nun Raped, Not Only Tortured (New York Post)

DEVIC, June 21 - We reported last week that some Serb nuns being had been beaten and tortured by some Kosovo Albanians at the Devic monastery after the withdrawal of the Yugoslav troops (see S99-111, "Peace" 5, Item 2, June 18). Now, a New York Post reporter in Kosovo, Uri Dan, has shed new light on this sad story. Here's an excerpt from his report, filed one day after the above TiM GW Bulletin (June 19):

"Three days after NATO troops refused a mother superior's pleas for protection, Kosovar rebels looted her monastery and raped a young nun, officials said yesterday.

French commandos and members of the French Foreign Legion arrived as the Kosovar Liberation Army guerrillas were leaving the isolated mountain religious community in Devic, about 30 miles northwest of the Kosovo capital of Pristina.

The Post reported Monday (June 14) how Mother Macaria drove to Pristina on Sunday (June 13) to plead with arriving British troops for protection for herself, a priest and nine nuns at Devic. 'Please come and save us. You have the guns, all I have is a cross,' she told an Irish Guard lieutenant. But she was told that no protection was possible until NATO reinforcements arrived.

Three days later, the unguarded medieval monastery was raided by KLA members, French officers confirmed yesterday. The French gave few details but a spokesman for Serb Orthodox Patriarch Pavle said the guerrillas showed no mercy.

'They desecrated the church, including the altar and icons, and humiliated the nuns,' Deacon Luka Novakovic told The Post. He said a 24-year-old nun was taken to a back room and raped.

The rebels looted the building of anything valuable and fired guns into the air as they left, just as the French arrived Thursday (June 17). "When they saw us, they stopped a while, shouted 'NATO, NATO,' and then beat a hasty retreat," the (French) officer said.

Among the evidence of the attack were the initials "UCK" - which stands for KLA - scratched into a pane of glass over an icon.

You can check out the full New York Post report at http://www.nypost.com/061999/news/9495.htm.

-----------

2. KLA Shows Its Real Face - Killers, Looters, Arsonists... And Torturers

PRIZREN, June 21 - After the Yugoslav troops left Prizren, the KLA also showed its ugly face - as Killers, Looters, Arsonists - and now also sadistic torturers. German troops with NATO K-FOR discovered something the KLA were not expecting them to at the former Prizren police headquarters taken over by the KLA. The Germans found to their horror a freshly set up torture chamber. Inside was a 70 year old Serb tied to a chair, with KLA men standing around the blood stained room. He had been beaten for several hours before he died, western media sources reported (also see a front page photo in the New York Times, June 19).

On the ground were chains, knives and a baseball bat with a nail in it. In other rooms K-FOR found 20 elderly Albanians, all of whom had been beaten during hours of interrogation. One elderly man had his leg smashed after a KLA fighter has stamped on him. Most were so terrified they could not even speak. They had been accused of collaboration with the enemy.

Under the current rules of engagement, the K-FOR were unable to arrest the KLA torturers (?), reports Daniel McGregory of the UK Times. The KLA have a strong presence in Prizren, where they are seen openly strutting around the streets showing off automatic rifles and pistols - contrary to the "demilitarization" provision of the Kosovo "peace" agreement.

---

TiM Ed.: Even for a "piss agreement" which is what we said the Kosovo "peace" process would turn into, it is incomprehensible that the German K-FOR troops were "unable to arrest the KLA torturers... under the current rules of engagement." What sort of "rules of engagement" are they if they provide for K-FOR to tolerate murder and torture?

---

Separately, here's a report about two other incidents of torture as reported by the Kosovo Human Rights Flash #47 on June 18:

"A 71-year-old Serb civilian who was interviewed by a Human Rights Watch researcher the evening before he fled Kosovo for Serbia has described how soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) tied him up, held him hostage for six hours, and brutally beat him. The elderly man had two black eyes, as well as large bruises on his body. His brother-in-law, an eyewitness to the incident, corroborated his account of abuse at the hands of the KLA.

This case is consistent with a growing number of credible reports of KLA mistreatment of ethnic Serbs and other non-Albanians received during the past week by Human Rights Watch researchers based in Kosovo.

The elderly man, S.B., described how he had been staying with his brother-in-law while they prepared to leave Prizren, the southern Kosovar city where they had lived all their lives. He and his entire family were ready to leave the city on Monday, June 14, but he decided to return to his home one last time before departing in order to pick up his medicine and identification papers.

S.B. told Human Rights Watch that he reached his home at about 1 p.m. and that:

"[The KLA soldiers] grabbed me, brought me down to the cellar and took turns hurting me. There were several of them, all in uniform. One had a black uniform, the official uniform of the KLA; the others were in green camouflage. They all had the KLA patch. They wanted weapons from me. While they were beating me they insulted me, called me 'Chetnik,' and told me to leave forever."

S.B.'s brother-in-law, who had been waiting at home for him, became worried when S.B. didn't return. At about 1:30 p.m., he went over to S.B.'s house. He told Human Rights Watch that he too was detained by KLA soldiers:

They took me down to the cellar with my brother-in-law. Two of them told me that I should think about where the guns were. They said that if I didn't have any guns, I should go find some, that they're cheap.

The KLA soldiers did not physically abuse the brother-in-law, who described to them how he had assisted some Kosovar Albanians who had fled the province during the recent conflict by protecting their shop.

The soldiers did, however, detain the brother-in-law for nearly two hours and beat S.B. in front of him. According to S.B., he was beaten most severely while his brother-in-law was watching. KLA soldiers reportedly kicked S.B. and hit him with the butts of their weapons. His brother-in-law described:

They took the old man's pants off and threatened him with a gun. They told him that they'd rip his eyes out of their sockets. Then they took the blunt end of a knife and gave him these two black eyes. They asked him: "Whose country is this?" When my brother-in-law answered that it's for everyone, they weren't satisfied. They said it belongs to the KLA, and they forced him to say this.

The soldiers held S.B. hostage, while they allowed his brother-in-law to leave the house to go find them a weapon. They secured S.B.'s hands behind his back with a belt and placed him face up on a table. After a while, they removed him from the table and let him sit in a chair, giving him some water to drink.

S.B. stated that while he was sitting in the chair a young ethnic Serb man was brought into the cellar by KLA soldiers, his hands tied behind his back with an electric cord. According to S.B., the young man was beaten even more severely than he had been. KLA soldiers demanded that he, too, give them weapons.

Meanwhile, S.B.'s brother-in-law had obtained a handcrafted pistol from an officer of the Yugoslav military. Afraid to return to S.B.'s house, the brother-in-law had his wife deliver the pistol to the KLA soldiers, who then released S.B. at about 7 p.m.

Human Rights Watch interviewed S.B. and his brother-in-law that same evening, roughly two hours after S.B.'s ordeal had ended. S.B., his family, and some 100 other Serb civilians had taken refuge on the grounds of a theological seminary in the center of Prizren. Everyone in the group feared that the KLA might take violent action against them and were desperate to leave the city as soon as possible. Early the next morning, they all left for Serbia."

---

TiM Ed.: Predictably, the western media have engaged in a feeding frenzy, overdosing on alleged Serb torture chambers "discovered' by the K-FOR in Kosovo, while ignoring the same or worse crimes by the KLA. Like Bill Clinton and other good students of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), CNN, the New York Times and other NWO media are creating a problem, switching the roles of the villains and victims, and then providing a "solution" which suits them - grabbing Kosovo from Serbia, and handing it over to the terrorist organization which they have created - the KLA.

None of which is to suggest that the Milosevic's goons weren't capable of torture and killings; only that the western public is only get one side of the story from the establishment media.

-----------

3. NATO Breaches the Kosovo "Peace" Agreement: KLA to Evolve into "Kosovo Defense Army" with Albright's, Senate's Blessings

PRISTINA, June 21 - Barely 11 days into the "piss process," NATO has already breached the Kosovo "peace" agreement it had signed. Twice. Suddenly, the KLA terrorists are being given 30 days to "demilitarize," meaning to allow to murder, torture, loot and rape Serb civilians - as you have seen from the above stories.

And now, a new NATO agreement with the KLA, reached on June 21 in Pristina, allows the KLA to become a permanent Kosovo "defensive army," according to today's front page New York Times report. This NATO deal with the KLA is a clear breach of the original June 3 "peace" agreement, according to which Kosovo is still an integral part of Yugoslavia. Yet, Yugoslavia was not a party to the latest NATO-KLA scam.

The stench from such Washington double-dealing was so high that even the NWO German government was opposed to it. But its foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, reportedly relented after a Sunday night dinner with Madeleine Albright in Cologne.

Rewarding the KLA terrorists with the status of a "defensive army" vindicates a poster seen at many anti-war protests around the world, asserting that NATO stands for North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. Birds of a feather evidently flock together.

The KLA political leader, Hashim Thaci and Madam Halfbright's spokesperson, James Rubin, even appeared together at yesterday's press conference in Pristina (see a Reuters photo in today's New York Times, and a related pre-war TiM story about Thaci and Albright - TiM GW Bulletin 99/3-2, Mar. 8, 1999).

Just in case that you may think this was some sort of a "Rambo" foreign policy move by Madam Halfbright, think again. Last Thursday (June 17), the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee quietly and UNANIMOUSLY (!) approved $20 million in start-up money to equip a Kosovo "self-defense force." And the 28 Senators, including those who had previously voted against Clinton's war on Serbia, did that four days BEFORE the NATO-KLA agreement about it was signed in Pristina.

And so, in the Kosovo "peace," as they did during NATO's illegal war, the members of Congress continue to support the criminal Clinton administration and the terrorist KLA - WITH OUR MONEY! Listed below are the names of the Senators on the of the Senate's Appropriations Committee. Let us ensure that they here from the TiM members what we think of their support for organized NATO-KLA terrorism, and ensure that NONE of them are returned to Washington come re-election time:

The Senate Appropriations Committee Web site: http://www.senate.gov/~appropriations/

The Kosovo "self-defense force" Bill - S.1234, SPONSOR: Sen McConnell, Mitch (introduced 06/17/99): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:s.1234:

------------

4. Yeltsin Completes Serb Betrayal; Clinton Glows

COLOGNE, June 20 - Boris Yeltsin completed Russia's betrayal of Serbia as he arrived in Cologne, Germany, for the final day of the G8 summit. "I am among my friends now," the Russian president declared, finally dropping the pro-Serb mask which he had worn for the last 80+ days. "The most important thing is to mend ties after a fight."

Never mind the thousands of dead or maimed Serb civilians, and tens of thousands of refugees - both Serb and Albanian. "The two countries are back in business," declared Sandy Berger, the U.S. national security adviser, after the hour-long meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents.

After the session, Bill Clinton glowed, standing next to a smiling Yeltsin.

And for how many dollars did this Russian backbiting serpent sell out Serbia?

Well, the $4.5 billion IMF loan is just for starters. As for the rest of the western debt of gratitude, any "linkage" between aid to Russia and Russian co-operation with NATO in Kosovo was generally left implicit by both sides, the Financial Times reported on June 21. "The less it is mentioned, the more effective it is," one western diplomat told the FT.

But Viktor Chernomyrdin - who acted both as Russia's contact with the IMF and with Milosevic - revealingly admitted he had discussed both aid and Yugoslavia in a meeting with Michael Camdessus, IMF chief, in St Petersburg last week, the FT said.

In an additional conciliatory gesture, the other leaders indicated their willingness not only to reschedule Russia's official debt if Moscow complies with an International Monetary Fund "reform" program, expected within a month, but also to consider for the first time a restructuring of Russia's $69 billion Soviet-era debt.

Clinton promised Yeltsin that the U.S. would push hard among leading creditor nations for the restructuring. But most of the Soviet-era debt is owed to Germany, and the U.S. officials were not hopeful of significant relief, according to the FT.

Yeltsin and Clinton agreed to begin talks this year on possible changes to the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the first time Russia has agreed to discuss a review in the ABM accord to reflect the US desire to press ahead with a national missile defense system.

The two also pledged to begin negotiations for a new strategic arms reduction treaty, Start 3. That represented a concession by the US, which had previously refused to open Start 3 negotiations until the Russian parliament approved the Start 2 treaty.

In a further effort to revitalize the Russia-U.S. relationship, the two presidents agreed that Al Gore, the U.S. vice-president, and Sergei Stepashin, the Russian prime minister, would soon resume the work of the bi-national commission, which has not met since Yevgeny Primakov, Stepashin's predecessor, was forced to abort a visit to Washington last March in mid-air just before NATO began bombing Yugoslavia.

Finally, Berger said the two leaders agreed not to review in detail the Kosovo crisis. Instead, Russia's role in helping negotiate an end to the conflict and the deal signed on Friday settling its participation in the Kosovo peacekeeping force had paved the way for renewed co-operation.

---

TiM Ed.: In other words, sweep Kosovo under the NATO rug with the help of the Russian broom. Just as Tatiana Popova predicted in her controversial May 11 historical essay, "Russians and Serbs: Story of Love and Betrayal" (see S99-73, Day 49, Update 1, May 11 and S99-81, Day 55, Update 1, May 17).

-------------

5. Hosting the World's Biggest Murderer

LJUBLJANA, June 21 - Bill Clinton basked in the afterglow of a series of diplomatic gains posted over the weekend in Cologne, and flew to Slovenia to become the first U.S. president to visit the Balkan country, the Dow Jones wire reported on June 21.

All of which left the president savoring his series of diplomatic coups and in an expansive mood as he arrived in Ljubljana. Not that the Slovenians were thrilled to see him, though. Here's a post (in translation) which we received from a TiM reader in Slovenia:

"Today we are hosting the biggest murderer in the world - Bill Clinton. He was met by a group of nondescript officials. Even the sky is crying over such a parody of lies and hypocrisy. Sad, it can't be sadder...

The murderer was in a good mood. Maybe that's how he always feels after the mass murders and destruction which he had ordered.

In 1941, Hitler was also greeted here the same way (with flowers, smiles and cheers).

But as the old saw goes, 'what goes around, comes around'."

B.D., Slovenia

-------------

6. NATO Continues to Kill - Its Own, This Time: Four Dead in Delayed Cluster Bomb Explosion

PRISTINA, June 22 - A blast that claimed the lives of two British peacekeeping soldiers and at least two civilians in Kosovo was caused by NATO cluster bombs they were trying to clear from a village, a spokesman for the British forces told the media in Pristina today.

The four died Monday (June 21) as British engineers were seeking to remove the unexploded ordinance from a school in Nagrovce, a village 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of Pristina, the spokesman, Lt.-Colonel Nick Clissitt, told the journalists.

The two British soldiers killed in the explosion were a part of the 36 Royal Engineers regiment based in Maidstone, Kent, in England. They were K-FOR's first fatalities since the peacekeeping force entered Kosovo two weeks ago.

Also, check out... Truth in Media Statement on Kosovo Crisis, "Wither Dayton, Sprout New War?", "On the Brink of Madness", "Tragic Deja Vu's," "Seven U.S. Senators Suggest Ouster of Milosevic", "Biting the Hand That Feeds You", "A Balkan Affairs Potpourri", "Put the U.N. Justice on Trial", "International Justice 'Progresses' from Kidnapping to Murder", "Milosevic: 'A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery'...", "Kosovo Lie Allowed to Stand", "New World Order's Inquisition in Bosnia", "Kosovo Heating Up", "Decani Monastery Under Siege?", "Murder on Wall Street",  "Kosovo: 'Bosnia II', Serbia's Aztlan",  "What If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot?", "Green Interstate - Not Worth American Lives", "An American Hero or Actor of the Year?" (A June '95 TiM story) and/or "Clinton arme secrètement les musulmans bosniaques"

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns: "Chinese Dragon Wagging Macedonian Tail,"  "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict?", "NATO's Bullyboys", "Kosovo: Why Are We Involved?", and "Ginning Up Another Crisis"

Or Djurdjevic's NEW DAWN magazine columns: "Washington's Crisis Factory,"  and "A New Iron Curtain Over Europe"